AU: They turned to look at the livid redhead. He took one look at Sakura's dishevelled and miserable appearance before turning sharply on his heel and storming out the door. The blonde bastard could insult his art and make a mockery of his puppets, but once he hurt his angel of a sister… That's it. He was a dead man. One-shot. Rated for swearing and very slight adult themes.

Another one-shot, but this time with angst instead of humour! I hope I did the genre justice, but it's my first time writing stuff like this, so… yeah. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, the Akatsuki wouldn't be dead, and Sasuke would ('cause seriously, he sees his brother and all, gets the full story and still insists on destroying Konoha. The hell is wrong with that kid?)

Tears: Shed and Unshed

Sakura burst through the café door, tears pouring from her eyes as she latched herself onto her friend from high school.

Sai's eyes widened as he took in the state of her appearance: sky-blue jeans that looked like they had seen their fair share of muddy puddles, a ruffled and tear-stained white blouse, muddy white leather boots, crooked glasses and running make up. He swept her into his arms, told his co-worker to cover for him, please, sat the sobbing girl down at a table at the back in the corner and raced through his contacts until he found the right ID number. He pressed call as he cradled the girl.

"I've got Sakura, she's a sobbing mess… No, I don't know why, she just got here… Are you coming or not?... Who else, you're her best friend! If anyone can get to her, it's you. And you're the closest… Right, see you soon."

Sai snapped the Nokia shut and tossed it onto the table, quickly crushing they girl against his chest to calm her down.

"Shh, it's alright Sakura, please stop crying…"

Sakura, however, ignored him in favour of continuing to bawl her eyes out. Sai just rolled his eyes and rubbed his hand soothingly in circles on her back, hoping to calm her down a bit before Ino got here. God knows she'd have a spazz attack when she saw they fashion disaster her friend had become- the tears and shaking would only make the situation worse.

The sound of a screeching car pulling up outside the café broke Sai out of his thoughts. Well, that was quick.

A blonde haired beauty flung open her silver door and stumbled out of the car, fiddling with the keys until the car locked before bursting through the café door, much like her friend, and sprinting to where her friends were. She skidded to halt in front of her friend. How she managed that without snapping her six-inch heels, Sai would never know.

"…It has something to do with my brother, right?" she asked softly, crouching down to Sakura's level. In Sai's opinion, women were superhumans- how they got around in their daily activities wearing shoes like that was beyond him. Wait, what? Ino's brother? Sakura's boyfriend…? Sakura hesitated, then nodded numbly. Tears started to leak from her eyes again. Ino growled.

"What'd that dumb bitch do? I swear to god, Deidara can be such an ass sometimes, I-"

"He… he…" Sakura couldn't say it, and instead decided to get it out by sobbing into Sai's chest. Sai just sighed and held her closer. Ino's face began to blotch red in her anger.

"You won't be telling me anytime soon, will you? That's it, I'm going to call him." Ino whipped out her Blackberry and began to dial when Sakura caught her wrist. "Please, don't… he doesn't know I know…"

Sakura sniffed. "I… I was walking up the stairwell to the apartment… You know, how elevators areout of order, so while they're getting fixed we have to take the stairwell?"

Ino nodded. Yes, she did know- she had just been to Sakura's place yesterday. Her feet killed from walking up two flights of stairs.

"And you know how Deidara's got those friends on the same floor as us? You know, Itachi and Kisame?"

Again, Ino nodded.

"Well, I was just coming up to the door that opened up to the third floor corridor when I heard a really weird conversation," Sakura sniffed. "So I put my ear to the door and I heard them say… I heard them say…"

Flashback

Sakura groaned. Her feet killed. She couldn't wait until they got that elevator fixed. Sakura looked down at the parcel she was carrying. She had bought Deidara some bakudan- she knew he loved it. Sakura groaned again, softly. And then suddenly, BAM! There it was- that blessed green door! Oh, how she had come to love that door- it meant that her journey was nearly at an end. Sakura grinned and sped up, and just as she grasped the handle-"

"You should get going, before that bitch arrives."

…Itachi?

"Yeah, wouldn't want her to walk in on this lovely little conversation. Don't worry, Karin, you can stay with us until the coast is clear."

…Kisame? Karin?

"Thanks for doing this, guys. I'll show that bitch who's boss. Thinking she's so great and all that. She's so annoying and clingy. Anyway, that was good. Dei-kun's a great fuck- I made sure he knows it. I think he might even love me."

Huh? What's going on? Who's the bitch? And what's this Karin girl got to do with her Deidara?

…Say what? Sakura was shocked- even her inner voice had gone soft and quiet. She heard shuffling and a door close, then Itachi's voice.

"I don't see why he bothers with her. She's such a waste of space and air- even Sasuke said so."

The hell has Sasuke got to do with this?

"Who knows," Kisame said.

No… no, no, no, no! Sakura pressed a hand to her mouth, tears beginning to run down her face. This couldn't be happening!

Taking a step backwards from the shock of overhearing this conversation, Sakura conveniently forgot that she was currently standing on a set of stairs, and would have fallen backwards if she hadn't been caught by a broad, male chest. Shino, a man who lived on her floor, raised an eyebrow at her before he saw her traumatised expression. His look melted into one of shock- Sakura was known as being quite the toughie. The voices behind the door continued.

"I just don't get what he sees in her- she can't even draw a stick figure to save her life!" It was the girl, Karin, again. And how the hell would she know, anyway? What, did she stalk Sakura or something?

Understanding dawned on Shino's face as Sakura let a small sob escape her lips. The voices began talking again, and Shino quickly steered her down the stairs again. Sakura didn't need to hear anymore. Unfortunately, Sakura's package of bakudan decided that it didn't want to go back down the stairs, and proceeded to fall out of the paper bag and onto the stairs below. It made a horribly loud noise. Sakura and Shino stopped, holding their breaths. So did the voices back behind the door. Footsteps began towards the green door, the door that only minutes ago had been a sign of less troubles and happiness. "Hello?" Kisame's voice called. The door began to inch open. Shino sprang into action. He quickly shoved Sakura in the direction of down, and scooped up the takeaway box of bakudan. I got it, his eyes said, and Sakura nodded gratefully- she couldn't smile. She quickly bounded down the stairs until she could no longer be seen. She heard Kisame speak.

"Oh, hey, Shino, what's up?"

"Nothing much. How are you?" Shino replied.

"Yeah, good. Hey, is that bakudan? I didn't know you liked bakudan! You and Deidara would have a great time together- he loves that shit!"

"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever. Sorry, I've gotta go- I just need to drop this off then I need to be somewhere."

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry mate. Hey, uh… You happened to see the blossom, by any chance?"

"…No, not recently."

"Oh, 'kay. Thanks man."

"Sure."

The sound of the door closing snapped out of her trance, and she quickly flew down the stairs, out the foyer and into the street where she proceed to find her friend at the nearby café. Heart pounding wildly and tears streaming from her eyes, she threw open the entrance doors, and spotting Sai immediately, threw herself on him.

End Flashback

Sakura finished up her heartbreaking story with "And the rest is history."

"You're going to have to be very quick about it," Sai spoke quietly, but his anger was evident, "Because I might get to him first."

Ino's glare could have frozen hell over. "NUH-UH, I DON'T THINK SO. MY FUCKTARD OF A BROTHER; I GET FIRST CLAIM." She suddenly looked very serene. "But first, let's call Sasori. I'm sure he'll be more than pleased to beat the living fuck out of my brother for hurting his little sister like this. Oh yes," she hissed, "Let's call Sasori."

Konan shot the girl a sympathetic look. "Sorry, honey, we heard the whole thing." Pein continued, "And I took it upon myself to call your brother. I didn't say anything, just to come here. He should be here soon."

"I'm here now.

All five turned to look at the livid redhead. He took one look at Sakura's dishevelled and miserable appearance before turning sharply on his heel and storming out the door to his sister's apartment. The blonde bastard could insult his art and make a mockery of his puppets, but once he hurt his angel of a sister…

That's it. He was a dead man.

Sasori raced up the stairwell, the five following him a flight behind. Sasori threw open the green door and walked up to the door of Deidara and Sakura's apartment. He tried the doorhandle- it was locked.

"Hey, Brat, you gonna open up?" Sasori's voice didn't give anything away. The door opened to reveal the blonde. "Danna-?"

He never got the time to finish his question, as Sasori roughly pushed him to the ground just inside the door. The others came pounding up the stairs just as Sasori delivered the first blow to his face.

"Danna, what the fuc-!"

"WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK? YES, DEIDARA, THAT'S WHAT I'D LIKE TO KNOW TOO. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU FUCKING? MY LITTLE SISTER NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU, EH?"

"The hell are you going on about- Fuck it, stop punching me, yeah!"

"ONLY WHEN YOU GIVE ME A DAMN GOOD REASON NOT TO. YOU BROKE MY LITTLE SISTER'S HEART, YOU BASTARD!"

"What? THE HELL DID I DO, YEAH?"

"YOU FUCKED THAT BITCH KARIN."

"I DID NO SUCH THING. I HATE THAT BITCH AND YOU KNOW IT, YEAH. AND DAMNIT, STOP PUNCHING ME!"

Deidara pushed Sasori off him, glaring at him despite his sore body. He was going to have a lot of bruises tomorrow. That is, if he lived.

Sasori sprung into action again. "Don't you go anywhere near her, you bastard!" He pushed Deidara to the floor none-too-gently, but Deidara only had eyes for Sakura. "Sakura, yeah? Baby, what's wrong?" His concentration on her angelic and heartbroken face was disrupted as Sasori punched him in the face. "Don't you dare say her name, you bastard. Don't even address her familiarly."

Deidara looked aghast. "I-I would never…" he looked over at Sakura. "Baby, what happened, yeah?"

"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT ADRESSING HER-"

Sasori was cut off from his rant by Kisame. "He didn't do anything…" he mumbled. Everyone's eyes quickly flew away from the blonde and redhead and to the tall man. "I…Itachi's younger brother's girlfriend… she wants Deidara… and since he doesn't want her anywhere near Sasuke… he agreed to help her. He wanted me to help too. And I… I just didn't say no. Deidara, Sakura, I'm so sorry," he mumbled miserably.

"Kisame…" Deidara growled lowly, "What the fuck did you do to me, yeah? Something happened while I passed out, didn't it?"

Sasori shook his head, confused. "…So technically, Deidara… didn't cheat on Imouto?" Deidara whirled around. "I WOULD NEVER!" A sob of relief brought everyone out of their confusion and rage. They all looked at the small pinkette who had a hopeful smile on her face.

"So… you do love me…?" she asked, hope and unshed tears glittering in her eyes. Deidara's heart broke and melted at the same time.

"Of course I love you. Forever, yeah."

The End

It kinda moved fast, but that's just the way it happened. Anywho, I hope you liked it! Please leave a review, they make my day! ;3

~Kaede

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